Natural Histories

Highlights 40 masterworks of illustrated scientific art from the Rare Book Collection of the American Museum of Natural ... (more)

Highlights 40 masterworks of illustrated scientific art from the Rare Book Collection of the American Museum of Natural History. (less)

In her precise writing, subtle and spellbinding, Nettel renders the ordinary unsettling, and the grotesque exquisite. In... (more)

In her precise writing, subtle and spellbinding, Nettel renders the ordinary unsettling, and the grotesque exquisite. In each tale Nettel creates, with tightly wound narrative tension, a space wherein her characters feel excruciatingly human, exploring how the wounds we incur in life manifest themselves within us, clandestinely, irrevocably, both unseen and overtly. These five dark and delicately written stories unfold in fragile worlds, where animal behaviors parallel the ways in which human beings interact with one another and react to their environments. Siamese fighting fish, cockroaches, a cat, a snake, and a strange fungus are mirrors that reflect the unconfessable aspects of human nature we keep hidden, buried. The traits and fates of these animals illuminate such deeply natural, human experiences as the cruelty born of cohabitation, the desire to reproduce or the struggle against it, and the inexplicable connection that can bind, eerily, two beings together. (less)

A fascinating look at the world's most numerous inhabitants, illustrated with stunning images from the American Museum o... (more)

A fascinating look at the world's most numerous inhabitants, illustrated with stunning images from the American Museum of Natural History's Rare Book Collection. (less)